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LOCARNO 2011

Low Life: A life-long love affair

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- Review of the film which has been directed by Elisabeth Perceval and Nicolas Klotz and has had its world premiere in Locarno.

As the director Elisabeth Perceval explained in press conference, the film is a fruit of love: for Robert Bresson’s cinema and for this film’s co-director, Nicolas Klotz, his life companion of 34 years. And 34 is also the number of years this film has been in the making, its conception goes back to 1977, the year in which the two directors, thanks to The Devil, Probably by Robert Bresson, discover those elective affinities which form the base of their long personal and professional relationship.

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Low Life, competing in the 64th Locarno Film Festival, aims to be a reflection of Bresson’s clear and desperate gaze (“Society is in contrast with the desire for freedom, escape, even though freedom, escape, lead to a wish for death”), “an ancient hope for renewal, as ancient as is the concept of youth, which blossoms and renews itself on the ashes of the previous generation”, according to Nicolas Klotz’s perspective.

Charles, like the main character of The Devil, Probably, a university student in Lyon, is in love with Carmen, also a student. Student life revolves around finding oneself, looking for a sense in life and political engagement. Carmen realises she is no longer in love with Charles and during a night of scuffles with the police, when students try to defend a house occupied by asylum seekers, she meets Hussain, Afghan poet and French Literature student. It is a passionate encounter and the two lovers cannot let go of each other. Meanwhile Hussain discovers that his request for asylum has been rejected and he is scared of leaving the house in case the police catches him and deports him from France. Carmen is terrified at the thought of losing him and the two shut themselves in a room, isolating themselves from the world. But this is no longer a life and Hussain escapes, leaving Carmen’s life as suddenly as he had entered it. He leaves for love, because falling in love with a foreigner means being involved in their battle, and this is not something Hussain wants for Carmen.

The film intertwines the political and the poetic, which fuel each other, with on the one hand a denunciation of obtuse policies on immigration and youth, on the other hand the poetry of young people, seen as a new language, perhaps capable of generating a new policy. There are elements of Harold Pinter’s political theatre, from the room in which the two lovers shut themselves, the only refuge from outside dangers, to the language imposed as a tool of subjection, from which the characters attempt to escape through poetry.

The film ends with Charles looking for Carmen, he finds her, follows her, worries about her, supported by his love, still intact, like a calm force capable of overcoming life’s challenges.

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